A good time... for the first two hours.
The Bad: Poorly paced; Very short; Later levels suck...
Nothing like a good game of Banjo-Kazooie, right? Wrong.
Unlike the grand n64 titles, and the excellent Builder for the 360, this GBA game just can't keep pace. The game IS classic Banjo-Kazooie. It has the jiggies, moves, notes, platforming, jinjos, humor, etc... All these aspects are amazing. The problem is in how the game ultimately plays.
The meat of a good platformer is the control. Unfortunately, Grunty's Revenge, while decent, just makes things overly complicated. The overhead view makes it nearly impossible to judge how far to jump, or how high a cliff is for that matter; leading to much trial and error. Also, lack of camera rotation makes it easy to get stuck behind landmasses. The minigames are fun, but for the most part they're variations of the same formula. You'll slide down slopes, and catch fish. That's it.
While this is to be expected, the graphics and sound are a little bland. The graphics are colorful, but they also feel washed out, and the character models aren't that great. It's also difficult to tell whether or not certain terrain is dangerous (I jumped straight into fire without even knowing it was fire). Not only that, but the worlds are complete rehashes of the n64 levels, and thiis makes things a little less exciting. The music fairs a bit better, but on the GBA these classic Banjo tunes are done to death. The charming n64 garbled speak is also painfully grating, much more so than Nuts and Bolts.
Terrible pacing is another issue. This game is WAY too easy for the first three levels. And then, out of nowhere, I'm struggling to stay alive at level four. There are only 60 jiggies to collect, and most of them are so easy that a seasoned Banjo player will breeze through this title in four hours. Out of all the boss fights, only one of them was very difficult (and it was a cheap fight, at that), which makes the four-five hours drag for those who loved the meaty, challenging bosses of Banjo-Tooie.
Overall, don't expect to keep this one under your pillow at night. It's a fun experience despite its flaws, but this is definitely the black sheep of the Banjo family.
- Josh Sumara